Friday, March 5, 2010

Lyme Rage

A 36 year old female was treated for severe Lyme disease and neuroborreliosis. A course of IV antibiotics was successful 2 years ago. I explained to her the need for maintenance therapy. She took oral antibiotics for a few months, but tiring of the medicines, she sought alternatives, such as A Rife machine. She had been treated for Lyme, Babesia and Bartonella. Her case had been well documented: abnormal MRI, abnormal SPECT scan and multiple positive Western Blot Lyme bands. The aches and pains returned, slowly. The mental confusion returned, slowly. She returned for further treatment 6 months ago. This happy-go-lucky soul had turned into someone else. She was was filled with unbridled rage. She told me she literally felt like killing someone. She was just waiting for that someone to cross her path so she could act out her rage. She meant business.

Several months into therapy she returned to her normal self. The anger disappeared gradually, and then it was gone--after treatment with a second course of IV therapy. Now, several months off IVs, she is largely symptom free, the disease controlled with oral antibiotics. The smile has returned to her face. She is once again a kind and gentle soul.

10 comments:

It would be interesting to know whether this kind of patient's MRI or SPECT scan showed a change in the abnormalities now that their personality is back to normal, and where those abnormalities may have been initially, and I'm curious if rage is due to brain abnormalities or is related to one of the hormonal systems functioning abnormally.

I think most people don't believe in this kind of story - it just sounds too unbelievable for them.

The fact that disease can change your mood and even state of consciousness shouldn't be such a leap of imagination when you consider how everyday substances such as alcohol, nicotine and other drugs cause mood changes and altered states of consciousness. When you are chronically ill, you are constantly not quite yourself.

I am just wondering if the biggest trigger is brain lesions, toxins, hormonal changes or whatever. Maybe a bit of everything?

The rage comes after everything is bothering: the light hurts, the sounds, the voices. I remember my husband and daughter laughing out loud while I was trying to run away from them. The tinnitus, the buzz inside the head; the sound of the heart so strong there's nothing else you can hear. Hard to concentrate, hard to keep the idea, hard to move and do what ever you need. Food is awful, everything smelled nasty, every bottle hard to open, every box heavy to carry; having to walk to the bathroom was far, the bed gave no relief but fear; you feel alone and abandoned; plus the pain everywhere. The back, the neck, the glands, the heart, the muscles, the bones, the veins. Beauty is gone, the hair dry, the skin full of infections and spots; the body swollen, fat and heavy. Constant diarrhea, bloating and reflux; nothing works fine; all the time more surprises and harder illnesses. The sentence: it can always be worse... then the rage and ending alone after fighting the beloved ones. Even fighting at the Doctor's office so everyone ends up being mean tired of your attitude... yes, a little of care and antibiotic treatment works miracles in Lymies personalities. We are probably nice after all!Would be nicer is the big Board of Doctors care too!

Would it be possible for Dr. Anonymous to contact me privately so that we can arrange an appointment? I was clinically diagnosed with Lyme last fall (about 3 months after I'd had a bullseye-shaped rash, which at the time I brushed off as a spider bite). I was given 3 weeks of Doxy, and I don't think it worked.

This is why live alone and have a very difficult time being around other people. Controlling the irrational emotions gets horribly difficult. It is very much like being fed a bad drug. You know it isn't coming from self desire but an outside influence that can't be controlled but just endured. There are good days but they become fewer and fewer as time rolls on. Maybe one every other month now. The abx make it vastly worse so far.